Puget Sound Traffic Choices Study Puget Sound Traffic Choices Study ITS America 2007 Annual Meeting...

Puget Sound Traffic Choices Study

Puget SoundTraffic Choices Study

ITS America 2007 Annual Meeting

Palm Springs, CA

Matthew Kitchen

Puget Sound Regional Council

Michael Wieck

Siemens ITS

June 5, 2007


BACKGROUND – Project Origins

• Destination 2030 Recommendation– Plan, design and implement a roadway pricing demonstration project

prior to 2006.

• FHWA Value Pricing Program– Awarded $1.88 million in grant funds for the Puget Sound region

study in 2002.

– Supplemental funding of $600,000 in 2005.


OVERVIEW - Study Approach

• The deployment of a network application of road user charging technology, using a sample of volunteer participants

– Siemens ITS off-the-shelf toll system solution– GPS vehicle positioning– Cellular communication– Back Office, billing and customer service functionality

• The only study designed explicitly to capture behavioral response to network tolls in an experimental setting

– True price incentive– Baseline and experimental treatments (tolls)– Controls for self-selection, attrition, seasonality, etc.– Time of day pricing– Multiple sources of price information (in-vehicle display, accounts, invoices)


OVERVIEW – Contributing to the Understanding of Road User Charging

– Detailed analysis of road user choice and behavior under a broadly implemented and sustained tolling treatment

– Over 400 volunteer participants– Tolling on all major roads in the Puget Sound region– Tolls based on time of day and type of road– Hold harmless experimental design – travel budgets– Preliminary results show quantifiable change of driving behavior in

response to tolls

– Part of the ongoing development and proofing of technical applications and systems design

– In-vehicle GPS-based OBU tolling– Communicating to central system via GPRS– First large-scale operational test showing the feasibility of area-wide road

use and congestion charging

– A pilot for identifying and understanding key policy variables and requirements


OVERVIEW - Key Findings

• Core technology for satellite-based toll systems is mature

• Observed response of drivers to tolls empirically suggests there is a practical opportunity to reduce wasted time resources and convert them to revenues for investment.

• We must still demonstrate that such a charging system will be technically verifiable and legally enforceable, within bounds of what is politically acceptable.

• A large-scale U.S. deployment of a GPS-based tolling solution depends on a viable business model and public acceptance of underlying concepts


OPERATION - Participant-Centered Project

• 275+ households

• 400+ vehicles

• Randomly selected from an enriched pool of potential participant households

• Each participating household was provided a unique travel endowment account, based on their baseline travel behavior

• Tolls were levied against this endowment account

• At the end of the tolling period participants were provided any remaining account balance


OPERATION - Main System Components

Comm. Server

Back-up System

Core System

EthernetWeb

PSRC Environment

PSRC Access

Call Center Access

Participant Access

GSM -GPRS

GPS

Office Equipment

OBUs


OPERATION - Schedule

Crossover design - before and after control data

System delivery

Acceptance test

Participant recruitment and enrollment

AM MJ MJ A S O FJDN JA

2005 2006

Control ControlExperimental Treatment - Tolls Analysis

Pre-implementation


OPERATION - Charges

Based on theoretical “economic efficient” tolls

– Recognizing artificial tolling environment (no impact on ambient congestion)

– Imperfect match of toll rates with conditions is desirable, generating variability for statistical modeling

Research objectives require multi-dimensionality

– Ideal: Variation of tolls by time of day, day of week, location, facility type, direction

– Practical: Emphasizes some dimensions while collapsing others

Customer: Keep it simple, simple, simple


OPERATION – Functional Summary

• 450 OBU installations and removals

• System fully operational for over 18 months

• Over 270 participating households– Up to 18 months of trip data per household

• Hundreds of customer service calls

• Over 4,000 invoices distributed

• Over 100,000 device to central system transactions

• Over 750,000 individual trip records

• Household surveys and focus groups


PRELIMINARY RESULTS - Theoretical Expectations

Travel characteristics most likely to be affected:– Trip or tour frequency– Trip or tour route / path– VMT and travel time– Time of day of travel

Effects expected to be larger for:– Home-to-work, work-to-home travel– Lower income households– Households with transit accessibility

NOTE: All results are preliminary.


PRELIMINARY RESULTS - Data Preparation


Billing system provided detailed physical and financial information on trip activity

– Tolls paid, VMT by link type, travel time, speeds, etc.– GPS time and location stamps provided information for reconstructing

paths, trip ends, time of travel, etc.

Trip purpose and traveler demographics were appended to trip information

– Trip and tour purpose had to be inferred– Tours were constructed from trip data– Any anomalous trip data had to be controlled for or repaired– Vacation periods were either reported or inferred– Household income were both reported and inferred– Trip-end activity was inferred using GIS-based employment statistics,

etc.


PRELIMINARY RESULTS - Descriptive Statistics


Descriptive Statistics, Expermintal Period*

Metric AM PEAK MI D-DAY PM PEAK EVENI NG NI GHT (Early AM)

Average Number of Trips per HH per period 1.02 2.73 1.77 0.81 0.24

VMT per HH per period 8.25 15.62 10.75 4.76 2.47

Vehicle-Hours per HH per period 0.47 1.06 0.95 0.26 0.07

Avg Speed (Miles/Hour) 17.6 14.7 11.3 18.1 34.0

Tolls Paid (Per Trip) (Experimental period) $1.80 $0.47 $1.52 $0.30 $0.31

* Weekdays only


PRELIMINARY RESULTS - Selected Metrics for all Households

Experimental Period as a Percent of Baseline Period


Metric home-to-work

work-to-home

home-to-home

work-to-work

Tours per week 94.9% 94.9% 108.0% 109.6%

Distance traveled per week 95.8% 93.5% 106.0% 107.8%

Tour duration, including dwell time per week 109.0% 94.9% 106.4% 118.9%

Segments per tour 95.6% 94.1% 104.6% 110.9%

Drive time per week 99.5% 95.5% 108.3% 112.1%

Tolls paid per week 92.1% 89.7% 104.8% 93.6%


PRELIMINARY RESULTS - Implied Value of Time by Tour Purpose


Purpose Dollars per hour

home-to-work 16$

work-to-home 12$

home-to-home 8$

work-to-work 6$


PRELIMINARY RESULTS - Elasticity of Demand

• During the AM peak travel period (6 - 9 AM)

– Tolls could reduce household auto trips ~10%

– Tolls could reduce vehicle miles traveled ~4%

• During the PM peak travel period (4 - 7 PM)

– Tolls could reduce household auto trips ~6%

– Tolls could reduce vehicle miles traveled ~11%


Estimated Elasticities* with Regard to Variable Costs of Auto Use

Metric AM PEAK MI D-DAY PM PEAK EVENI NGNI GHT

(Early AM)

TRIPS -0.1610 -0.1560 -0.0996 -0.1290 0.0532

VMT -0.0531 0.1806 -0.1803 0.0491 0.3326

HOURS -0.0019 0.2483 0.0795 0.0970 0.5346

* Weekdays only

Measured across all trips on all facilities; more

significant reductions on roads where tolls were

highest.


PRELIMINARY RESULTS - Survey

Q17I1

100.0

90.0

80.0

70.0

60.0

50.0

40.0

30.0

20.0

10.0

0.0

Percent of Funding From Use Charges

At the end of the study

Fre

qu

en

cy

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Std. Dev = 28.40

Mean = 51.7

N = 249.00

TOLL1

100.0

90.0

80.0

70.0

60.0

50.0

40.0

30.0

20.0

10.0

0.0

Percent of Funding From Use Charges

At the Start of teh Study

Fre

qu

en

cy

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Std. Dev = 30.73

Mean = 39.9

N = 249.00

Percent of funding from direct use charges

At the start of the study

Percent of funding from direct use charges

At the end of the study

How do you think roads should be paid for?

Survey responses substantiate the data results and provide evidence for a causal relationship. 70% of participants stated they changed their behavior in response to the tolls.


PRELIMINARY RESULTS - Survey

Q18

7.06.05.04.03.02.01.0

Concerned About Privacy

At end of Study: 1 (low) - 7 (high)

Fre

qu

en

cy

50

40

30

20

10

0

Std. Dev = 2.13

Mean = 4.1

N = 249.00

PRIVACY1

7.06.05.04.03.02.01.0

Concerned About Privacy

At start of Study: 1 (low) - 7 (high)

Fre

qu

en

cy

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Std. Dev = 1.97

Mean = 4.0

N = 249.00

Concerned about privacy

At the start of the study: 1 (low) – 7 (high)

Concerned about privacy

At the end of the study: 1 (low) – 7 (high)

How concerned would you be about the privacy implications of a toll system that collects specific road use information for individual vehicles?


OUTLOOK - Expected Full Results

• Understanding of driver behavior: price elasticity of demand (details by time of day, day of week, etc.)

• Substitutability of other routes, transit/ridesharing, etc.

• Differences by HH type (income, size, fleet, transit accessibility)

• Projection of revenues, congestion reduction and other system level consequences

• Examination of participant perceptions (e.g. technology and privacy)

• Additional systems design work:

– Data protection and privacy

– Verification and enforcement systems

– Ancillary geo-positioning capabilities (e.g. microgyro, DSRC, GSM)

– Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII)


For more information contact:

Michael Wieck

Siemens ITS

206.245.6222

[email protected]

Matthew Kitchen

Puget Sound Regional Council

206.464.6196

[email protected]

http://www.psrc.org/projects/trafficchoices/index.htm

Puget Sound Traffic Choices Study Puget Sound Traffic Choices Study ITS America 2007 Annual Meeting...

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